First, a construction of an indoor unit for a conventional separate type air conditioner will be described, focusing on an indoor heat exchanger, with reference to FIG. 9. The indoor unit body is configured to comprise an indoor heat exchanger 4, an air blow-off grille 5, an indoor power source plate, an air blowing fan, a fan motor and other parts, all of which are contained in a housing 3 composed of a frame 1 and a front grille 2. The indoor heat exchanger 4 comprises a plurality of fins 6 disposed in parallel, end plates 7 located on both sides, and a pipe 8 passing through the fins 6 and the end plates 7 as shown in FIG. 10. In order to increase the heat exchanging capability while keeping the compactness of the indoor unit, the indoor heat exchanger 4 is shaped so as to be bent at a plurality of places at the lower front portion and between the front portion and the rear portion as shown in FIG. 10. This bent shape is formed by a connection between a plurality of heat exchangers or a connection between some bent heat exchangers and a separate heat exchanger. Gaps developed in an indoor air circuit by disassembling and assembling the indoor heat exchanger 4 produce adverse effects such as dewcondensation. Therefore, as shown in FIGS. 11 and 12, an upper part between the front-side and rear-side heat exchangers is closed by a spacer 9, which is fixed with screws or the like.
However, the configuration of the indoor heat exchanger 4 for the conventional separate type air conditioner has a problem in that if a shock is applied to the heat exchanger 4, for example, in transport, the heat exchanger 4, i.e., the fin 6 is deflected toward the inside, with the result that there is a possibility of adverse effects caused on the performance of the heat exchanger 4.
An object of the present invention is to prevent the occurrence of deflection of the fin of the indoor heat exchanger by a deformed spacer without any increase in the number of parts.
Another object of the present invention is to prevent the occurrence of deflection of the fin of the indoor heat exchanger by a spacer without any increase in the number of parts and fabrication processes.
Still another object of the present invention is to prevent the occurrence of deflection of the fin of the indoor heat exchangers of a plurality of types by utilizing the flexibility of a spacer body while keeping the commonality thereof.